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The MEditerranean MOuntainous LAndscapes Project, financed by European Commission FP-7 (#613265), is coordinated by José María Martin Civantos, associate professor and researcher at the Dept of Medieval History, Universidad de Granada (Spain).

The project aims to apply an interdisciplinary perspective to study the evolution of Mediterranean mountainous cultural landscapes.

In October and November of 2014, took place the first archaeological intervention , authorized by the Soprintendenza ai Beni Culturali e Ambientali di Trapani, at the site of Pizzo Monaci (Custonaci, Trapani). During this activity we excavated four cells and the main entrance of a fortified structure, identified as a possible collective granary from Islamic times (10th?-11th centuries)

This campaigned not only allowed to determined the chronological and cultural frame of the Pizzo Monaco settlement, but also provided data for an integrated reading of the rural landscape in which the fortified granary is located. Thus, the University of Palermo took soil samples for a dafology analysis. Archaeological sediments taken from the different use levels of the different localised environments and soil samples, were flotated in order to extract ancient vegetable remains (Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma-CSIC). In addition, the University of Granada developed an integral triditopography of the settlement and the hill in which it is located.

The excavation was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture in Spain, through the funding “Ayudas arqueológicas en el exterior”, and the Max Van Berchem Foundation.

The MEMOLA partners that participate in the II excavation Campaign are:

The aim of this conference is to allow specialists and researchers from various cultures and different professional felds to meet and exchange views about the study of ancient forests. Foresters, planners, developers, ecologists, biologists, agriculturalists, geographers, historians, philosophers, ethnologists, cartographers, archaeologists, archaeobotanists, sociologists etc., from all backgrounds, are invited to join this debate about our various and varying concept of “ancient forests”.